Emphasize ingredients on nutrition labels: #tellusatoday

The Food and Drug Administration wants to update nutrition labels on packaged food to make them more user friendly. Comments from Twitter and Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The labels are useful, especially the ingredients section, but they can be improved and written in layman's terms.

— @vonKalweit

Updates are long overdue. Current ones are misleading on serving sizes. Stop calling one container four servings.

— @MarcAndreGauvn

The labels are useful to those who have an interest in nutrition but are misleading. People eat double a serving size, not realizing it.

— @DanyaNasser

The people interested are already reading them; those not interested won't read them no matter how big they are.

— @VicClark2

Ultimately, revisions will help. Most people associate health with calorie counting solely, so it's definitely a right step.

— @PhilNobile

I'd like to see genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) labeled. Instead, labels emphazise what we know already.

— @nconti66

I'd like to see the country of origin where the product is manufactured and packaged.

— @cindyteatime

Many people don't really read the nutrition labels now; I doubt they will start if it's in bigger print. The information isn't that hard to understand; you just have to read it.

— Heather Bramer

They are proposing to make serving sizes more realistic. So 225 calories per 4-ounce serving will become 450 calories per 8-ounce serving. Are people incapable of figuring that out?

— Terry Hay

Although some of us are able to calculate true serving sizes, you might be surprised at how many people don't. They just see the calories, have no idea how much an actual 4-ounce serving is, and end up eating 8 ounces. Then they think they just ate 225 calories. That's one of the points the updates are trying to address.

— Daniel Shuler

If the new labels are intended to inform consumers, then they should include and highlight all of the genetically modified and toxic ingredients. Americans are more concerned about natural ingredients than getting fat.

— Michael J. Marsalek

Our food labels do not need to be changed. I read them and all of the important information is already there. The print does not need to be larger, and the serving sizes are fine as is. Is this change something that companies should be spending money on? No.

— Annette Goulet

No amount of nutritional information will change the person who eats three containers of yogurt rather than one, or eats one triple burger at lunch with a large fries.

How much more do Americans need to be educated about food? The answer is pretty simple: Don't eat so much; that's it!

— James R. Puz

The calorie count isn't the most important thing to know. A product can be low in calories but high in unhealthy ingredients put into processed food. Read the ingredients list! If you don't know what the ingredients are, then they probably aren't good for you.